Three persons, including a United Liberation Front of Asom militant, were killed and six others injured in three separate incidents of violence in Assam on Thursday, on the eve of Republic Day.

Police informed that one person was killed and six others were injured when suspected ULFA militants triggered a blast in the evening at a market in the railway township of Rangiya, Kamrup district, about 35 km away from Guwahati.

In another incident, a tea estate labourer was killed in crossfire between suspected Bru tribal militants and personnel of 21 India Reserve Battalion at Dholai tea estate in Hailakandi tea estate of south Assam.

Police informed that the tea garden worker, Premlal Karmakar, was watering tea bushes at Kushiara division of Dholai tea estate when he was hit on the head by a bullet. He died instantly.

A ULFA militant died on the spot when the bomb in his possession went off accidentally at Borhapjan in Tinsukia district of Upper Assam in the afternoon. The militant was carrying the bomb on his bicycle.

No one was injured when a bomb planted by suspected ULFA militants went off in Ganeshguri area near the state's capital complex at Dispur in Guwahati on Thursday evening. Police informed that the bomb exploded in a garbage bin near a market.

Police recovered a powerful improvised explosive device at a busy market in North Lakhimpur in Upper Assam on Thursday afternoon. The bomb was immediately defused. Meanwhile, the army cliamed to have arrested six ULFA militants in Tinsukia district.

The banned ULFA, along with three other militant outfits in the north-east, had called for boycott of official celebrations of Republic Day and a general strike.